Coyotes have appeared in the undeveloped area along the shores of Lake Bonny across from Lakeland Senior High School. Signs posted along the fitness trail in the Lakeland park warn visitors of coyotes in the area.

By BEN BRASCHTHE LEDGER

LAKELAND | After what Donald Noland saw Friday morning, he's afraid to let his cats outside.When Noland walked out to his front yard at 7 a.m., he found a head, a pair of ears, and a red collar. They belonged to Scooter, his three-legged black cat with luminescent yellow eyes. Scooter died 20 feet away from where he was born a little more than a year ago.Noland, 82, lives near Lake Bentley, less than a mile away from where a sign now stands in Lake Bonny Park warning people to keep their pets inside to protect them from coyote attacks.The sign indicates a change in his South Lakeland neighborhood and in other parts of Polk County and Florida."Something's eating up the pets," Noland said. "It's a personal loss when a cat's gone."Originally at home in dusty deserts, coyotes have migrated throughout Florida in search of food without natural competition, and have adapted well in their humid home, now creeping into more populated areas.The increase in coyote activity means danger for Polk County pet owners who put their animals outside.In 2013, Angeline Scotten, wildlife assistance biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, responded to 17 reports of coyotes in Polk County. Not halfway through this year, she's already responded to 11 reports of coyotes within the area.With easy, domesticated prey wandering around neighborhoods, coyotes have started to move into more suburban and urban areas to feed and live."Coyotes are one of the ultimate survivors. Not only have they survived but they've thrived," Scotten said.Sad details tell the story: In March, a cat was killed and its front half was found in the front yard of its owner's home, 1421 Newport Ave. The rest of its body was found on Crystal Lake Drive.In April, two cats were found mutilated, one off of Easton Drive and the other near a home on Brook Lane off Lake Hollingsworth Drive.Initially, police raised concerns that a person was responsible."This is bizarre and sadistic. This is how serial killers start," the Lakeland Police Department spokesman said at the time.National organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals offered up to $5,000, and Alley Cat Allies, a cat advocacy group based in Bethesda, Md., offered $750 for information that would have led to an arrest.The cat carcasses were sent to University of Florida's W.R. Maples Center for Forensic Medicine where geneticist AnnMarie Clark tested DNA to determine that a coyote killed the cats.Scotten, however, said she knew what was to blame from the start."When I heard, it was screaming 'coyote' to me," she said.Scotten said she often deals with coyote complaints because the animal will eat anything it can, from roadkill to watermelons to pets."If the opportunity presents itself, a coyote would eat a free-ranging cat," she said.Scotten said a coyote saves precious calories if it preys on a house cat instead of running down a rabbit.When coyotes kill calves or goats, she said, they attack the animal from behind, use its paws to choke the livestock and then start eating the stomach first, leaving the animal ripped in half. Many of the cats found were torn in half.She said the arrival of more coyotes in the area makes sense because of the amount of easy trash, pet food and pets for them to eat.Scotten said she deals with 10 reports of coyotes killing cats a year and has received three reports from Winter Haven this year.In a rural environment, the range of the coyote can be 15 miles, she said. But in an urban setting, the coyote's range is 3 miles, meaning it saves time traveling and has everything it needs in a fifth of the space."This kind of conflict is not uncommon whether its coyotes, foxes or bears," said Ruth Steiner, professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Florida. "You have this situation where, prior to humans, these animals used to have a wide range, and now these houses are cropping up in their area."Steiner said the issue of wildlife in suburbs has been a regional planning issue for 25 years."The more fragmented (ecosystems) get, the more edges you have and the more of a chance you have between these predators and their prey or humans interacting," she said.The coyote, or Canis latrans, has been documented in all 67 Florida counties. It normally weighs between 20 and 35 pounds and has gray fur with tan or brown patches.Danny Caudill has been a part of a two-year project through the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, looking at the stomach contents of coyotes, many of which are in urban or suburban areas.The general conclusion: "What they come across as easy to kill is what they eat," said Caudill, assistant research scientist on the project.He said the research looked at what was in the stomachs of more than 230 coyotes from across Florida, which included multiple cat carcasses."Domestic cats are easy prey items for them," he said.Caudill said the project started by looking at the diets of coyotes in counties where scientists knew there would be coyotes like Hillsborough, Pinellas and Polk.In Polk, he said, researchers worked with two coyote hunters in Avon Park.He said scientists found electrical wire, McDonald's wrappers and watermelon in some coyotes' stomachs."They're one of those animals who eat everything," he said.

[ Ben Brasch can be reached at ben.brasch@theledger.com or 863-802-7590. Follow Ben on Twitter @ben_brasch. ]

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.